Five things you need to know from Kentucky basketball’s 100-72 rout of Bucknell
READ MORE
Game day: No. 23 Kentucky 100, Bucknell 72
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Bucknell in Rupp Arena.
Expand All
Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 100-72 win over Bucknell in an NCAA men’s college basketball game at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Kentucky’s 3-point magician. After only two Koby Brea games in UK blue and white, one can hear the anticipation ripple through the Rupp Arena crowd every time the transfer from Dayton rises to take a 3-point shot.
There is good reason for that.
Brea, the 6-foot-7, 215-pound super-senior Washington Heights, New York, made 6 of 8 treys and led Kentucky with 20 points in the win over Bucknell.
In two games as a Wildcat, Brea has now made 10 of 12 3-pointers.
Going back to last season at Dayton, Brea has made 110 of his last 213 3-point attempts.
With Kentucky about to take a big step up in class against Duke in Tuesday night’s Champions Classic in Atlanta, it will be fascinating to see if Brea can keep the scalding shooting going.
2. Better to give. In Kentucky’s 103-62 win against Wright State in the season opener, the Wildcats assisted on a robust 30 of their 39 made field goals.
Against Bucknell, the ball movement was not as crisp. Still, UK finished with 23 assists on 38 made baskets.
Leading the way was super-senior guard Kerr Kriisa, who dished out 12 of Kentucky’s 23 dimes.
If the assists were not quite at the level of the season opener, UK head man Mark Pope got his wish in another area.
After calling for better rebounding, Pope watched his team slaughter Bucknell 32-14 on the boards in the first half.
In the second half, UK won the rebounding battle 25-21. For the game, the Wildcats outrebounded the Bison 57-35.
Amari Williams, with 13 points and 14 rebounds, paced the Kentucky board efforts.
3. Feeling “Patriotic.” With its victory against Bucknell in the first meeting between the two teams, Kentucky is now 16-1 against the teams currently in the Patriot League.
The most consequential contests played between UK and a team now in the Patriot League were both against Holy Cross. En route to the 1948 NCAA Tournament championship, Adolph Rupp’s “Fabulous Five” defeated Holy Cross 60-52 in the Eastern Region finals.
In the 2001 NCAA Tournament, Tubby Smith’s Wildcats defeated Holy Cross 72-68 in the round of 64.
UK’s only loss to a team now in the Patriot League came on Jan. 18, 1928, a 32-26 defeat at Navy.
4. A big Saturday afternoon crowd. Rupp Arena may not have been completely full for UK-Bucknell — but it was really close.
In a venue whose listed capacity is now 20,545, Kentucky announced a crowd of 20,048.
Although many point to the steady diet of mid-major opponents UK faces at home in November for why Rupp is generally nowhere close to full for those contests, my theory is that the days of the week when those games are generally played — in other words, weeknights — play a big part in the attendance.
Once the SEC Network came on line, it has been all but impossible for UK to play Saturday basketball before December because college football has all the TV windows locked up for November Saturdays.
However, with the Bucknell game shown only via Internet streaming and the Kentucky football team with a Nov. 9 bye, it allowed UK men’s hoops to play a rare Saturday home game at Rupp in November.
The result was Cats fans filled the old barn almost to the brim.
5. Mark Pope avoids a UK basketball hex. Starting with Joe B. Hall in 1972-73, there had been an odd reality play out for Kentucky coaches in their second games on the Wildcats’ bench.
Beginning with Hall, every other UK head man had lost the second game of his first season:
1972-73: Hall lost to Iowa 79-66.
1985-86: Eddie Sutton won at Chaminade 89-57.
1989-90: Rick Pitino lost 71-69 to Indiana in the Big Four Classic in Indianapolis.
1997-98: Tubby Smith beat George Washington 70-55 in the Maui Classic in Hawaii.
2007-08: Billy Gillispie lost 84-68 to Gardner-Webb.
2009-10: John Calipari defeated Miami (Ohio) 72-70.
By the pattern set by his successors, Pope was in line to lose his second game against Bucknell.
That Pope instead broke UK’s “alternating coach, second game hex” seems a karmic positive.
This story was originally published November 9, 2024 at 6:00 PM.
